Today Sun announced the SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 servers - the first servers using the new UltraSPARC T2 processor.

Sun compares an SAP SD T5120 benchmark to an IBM System p 570 POWER6 result - but, amazingly, the footnote about this claim is all about the HP rx6600. What's going on here? Maybe the footnote is about the HP system because in reality the POWER6 p570 achieves 1.84 times more performance than the T5120.(1)

Sun compares a T5220 Notesbench result to the IBM System x3650, a configuration that is half the number of cores and more than 2.6 times less memory.(2)

Sun compares other vendors' power configurator values and maximum power values to Sun's actual power measurements from their benchmarks. Not exactly apples to apples is it ?

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Besides comparing benchmark results based on different numbers of cores and vastly different amounts of memory, comparing new Sun systems with other's old systems, and comparing actual power consumption with nameplate power consumption - big benchmark no-no's - Sun uses pricing in a footnote on a SPEC benchmark. A benchmark where pricing is not a metric. Surely meant to distract us from the fact that for these results the IBM POWER6 core offers 43% more performance than the UltraSPARC T2 core.(1)

If you're at the airport reading this blog and waiting for an MD-80, it's probably time for that beer.